Top 10 Reasons I Did Not RT Your DM Request

This article is not meant to offend anyone, but I am sure it will. If you have ever been asked to retweet links for someone, at least I think you can sympathize. I have spent hours defending my right to say no to a retweet request. At some point I realized it’s time to just lay it out for everyone so you know where I am coming from.

1. You Have Never Spoken To Me Before

Often people follow me, and I follow back, but they may never speak a word to me. That’s fine, the internet is full of lurkers. But to send me a link without ever even saying hello and building a relationship with me, is truly in bad taste, and likely to get you unfollowed.

2. You Never RT For Others, But Expect Your Content To Go Viral

If I look at your feed and it’s all about your latest blog post, and you don’t regularly RT others content as well, then unfortunately no one owes you a RT, and it’s doubtful you will get one.

3. I Have Never Used The Product, App or Software

Don’t expect me to advertise a product, app or service I have never used personally in my Twitter stream. I am never going to endorse something as the “Best” or the “Greatest” if I have no knowledge of it, or I simply don’t think it’s that awesome.

4. Your Site Contains Content I Morally Disagree With

Everyone has the right to create content as they see fit. I personally have the right to share content I like. But if your sidebar looks like an ad for porno, or you have politically charged entries that I personally disagree with, then it is my right to say no. Just as it is your right to post the same content.

5. I Never Even Saw Your Request

I realize there are people out there that believe I see every single tweet and direct message I receive. I will take this opportunity to say “No, I do not.” I do my best to filter content, but even the best filters don’t bring up every tweet created that day. So there is always that distinct possibility yours was missed in a restart or a barrage of other tweets.

6. I Did Not Like The Content

Sometimes I just don’t like the content, or don’t feel my followers will enjoy it. Don’t feel bad, they don’t like all of my content either. But over time I have become accustomed to what people like and what people don’t like to see in my twitter stream. In all honesty though, I only share content I have read and enjoy.

7. Bad Grammar

Sometimes I enjoy the content, but notice so many spelling and grammar errors that I simply can’t tweet it. If grammar is not your strong suit, then by all means have a friend review the article for accuracy before releasing it to the scrutiny of others.

8. It’s Not Fresh Content

Sometimes I have already tweeted a similar article and don’t want to flood my stream with the same information. Aim for unique content and it will guarantee you more views than a cut-and-paste style copy of something already reported.

9. It’s A Paid Event Invitation

Basically you are looking for free advertising of your event. And while I understand that, I don’t feel the overwhelming desire to sell to my twitter following. If it’s an event that I see merit in, I will consider it, but these type events should be offered as advertisements to blogs, not as retweet requests to help keep your costs down.

10. I Don’t Want To

The way I feel about it, I don’t need a reason. I do want to help my friends with retweets. I truly enjoy sharing great content on Twitter, but I never feel the need to force feed my followers tweets just because someone is my friend. I don’t mind the requests, as long as they are accompanied by the respect for my right to say no.

Exactly the points to be noted and finally someone wrote it. Excellent points for the people who simply DM me expecting I have nothing else to do at all (other than RT their DM LOL!). They never converse also. There are quite a few like this. For them I am just silent.. I simply act like I never got the DM or the DM sucked up in a blackhole!

I feel the same way. I never expect anything from someone I RT, but somehow being asked constantly to RT something from those that always want yet never give, to me is just not the way to handle things. Thanks for reading it! ♥

I always look at DMs, I rarely see them all though. I do have them set up to email me when I receive DMs, and I have a hefty file to search in case I miss or need something important. I unfollow people that shoot out their DMs requesting I buy their guaranteed product. Most of my DMs are truly just chats and exchanges of information. Glad you enjoyed the post! ♥

I RT from sources all the time that don’t share, for me the difference is they did not ask me. It’s the people that always think you have to RT that annoy me. Literally if I tell someone no, they argue with me. After hours of wasting time in these “discussions” I felt I had to finally say what I was feeling. Glad you enjoyed it dear! ♥

The bad grammar really chaps my hide. If it’s not well written, I typically won’t share it unless the message is so powerful it makes me blind to the blunders. I also can’t stand when it’s someone I’ve never really connected with. Wonderful insight & post!

As you well know, the DM backwaters are where often deep, personal, and private conversations take place — in addition to the blizzard of spam we plow through.

Just as often, RT requests appear in our DM stream (yes, even sometimes from me!). Like you, I believe such requests must come only after a relationship of trust and sharing has been established. On a basic note, I never click on a link from someone I don’t know well.

While I’m always glad to be tipped off to great content in a DM, friends know that if I don’t RT, not to take offense. RT requests come often and, in pacing my own content sharing, it doesn’t always work — or it likely falls in one of the categories you’ve enumerated.

Thanks for tackling this sensitive subject and letting us share our thoughts!

Like you and many of the comments that have been made I find it amazing that peeps who I do not know will send a DM with a re-tweet request to sales links. Instant delete. The more annoying issue is when they send the same request in the regular stream. I get several a week, again I unfollow them immediately.

I do not have any where near the followers of some of the more influential people on Twitter so I can imagine the amount of garbage that you must receive.

I do get request for re-tweets from people who I have developed relationships with, who tweet great content and who I respect greatly. I know that their links are trustworthy and I know that when I have something that I would like to get out..they will return the favour in kind. I would never, ever ask anyone to retweet a sales link..poor form.

First the title: I don’t think it can be considered a RT is you get it through a DM. Or are you getting DMs that say, “Can you give a shout out about my last tweet?” I’ve had people DM me asking for me to tweet a link or something. I don’t think I’ve ever had a request from someone asking me to RT a tweet. Well, not that wasn’t promptly unfollowed for being a spammer I missed.

#7. For some reason grammar online doesn’t bother me as much as it does on printed material. In fact, sometimes misspellings and broke sentence structure lends itself to seeming more genuine and less vetted, focus grouped, polished and edited.

This all said I have three rules for an RT.

1. Is it funny and original?
2. Am I doing a favor for someone that does them for me? I promote @tweet_fail’s website often. Why? Because rule number 3.
3. Do I like it?

I’m not a “what’s cool” or newsfeed though, so I have way different standards for what I’ll send back out.

What I really hate is when people don’t consider their audience. I follow a lot of graphic designers. I love it when they talk about design. When they start throwing out RTs on other subjects I usually shut it off so I don’t see those anymore.

This article sums this subject up perfectly. I am often sent requests to RT things. Sometimes, I don’t mind but other times I feel I am being pressured into it. I was asked to RT an article a while ago, that I completely disagreed with. It was a religious argument. While I am not religious, I feel people are entitled to their own beliefs and I would’nt want to push mine (or somebody else’s) on anybody. I explained this to the person and they were a little cold with me about it. Also, I like to keep my stream personal to me, things I have found or enjoyed reading, or RT something that I think is worth the RT. Aside from the fact, I wouldn’t dream of doing it myself. Anyway, great article Susan.

Perfectly agree with you Susan and it is quite natural that people who have just started a blog will find out ways to make it popular. In that desperation they roll out links and forget the first thing to get acquainted with a popular twitter-er. Fairly good article and I’d say every new blogger should read it to know that they are not being ignored but they just need to do it the right way. Perfectly balanced post actually.

The advice here is very good, provided we all understand ONE very basic thing: None of us are too important… to follow and relationship build with anyone else on Twitter…Facebook…LinkedIn or anywhere else on the Web. Our Social Media decisions should always be based on good judgement and never by self-importance filtering.

Great points! I’m getting pretty annoyed with most DMs, they all either ask you to join the FB page as well or to download an e-book or to buy something. What happened to DMs being mostly personal? They were until a year or so ago.

I don’t auto DM, never have, and I still do pretty well on Twitter in terms of followers. By now, I only check DMs for personal notes, but I make it a point to retweet a lot of useful information as a service to my followers. And if you e-mail me, I might even write a blog post about you to help you out

Hi Susan, I must have missed this post first time around. Love how you said everything very respectfully. Unfortunately too many people just want to blast away with their messages and forget that you have to give to get and content may not be worth sharing. Thanks for sharing!

I am actually pretty lenient as long as the person asking has some valuable content. However, I hate those Trump University kind of DM requests. Affiliate offers and nonsense like that won’t ever get RT’d by me.

I think that one of my biggest Twitter pet peeves is people that constantly promote their own content, but don’t bother to retweet or pay any mind to others unless it is to ask a favor of them. I also can’t stand bad grammar. I don’t think I could retweet someone if the entire tweet was full of grammar errors.

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